Honestly, I'm no fan of companies patenting business practices that others may also have been developing in parallel (in August of 2011, several firms currently specializing in the practice had already launched or were on the verge of doing so), since it often feels like an unfair
restraint on
competition and the
free flow of ideas.
The defendant, from in or around March 2008 to in or around October 2013, in the County of Monroe, acting in concert with others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, knowingly and intentionally entered into and engaged in and continued to engage in a contract, agreement, arrangement, and combination in unreasonable
restraint of combination and the
free exercise of activity in the conduct of business, trade, and commerce, specifically, to restrain
competition in the bidding process of Monroe County for the Public Safety Contract, by means of bid rigging.